   #copyright

William N. Page

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Historical figures

   William Nelson Page ( January 6, 1854– March 7, 1932), was a United
   States civil engineer, entrepreneur, capitalist, businessman, and
   industrialist.

   Born into an old Virginia family near present-day Lynchburg, Virginia
   about seven years before the American Civil War, William Page became
   one of the leading developers of West Virginia's rich bituminous coal
   fields in the late 19th and early 20th century, as well as being deeply
   involved in building the infrastructure to process and transport the
   mined coal. Educated as a civil engineer, he first came to the area as
   a surveyor to help build the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in the 1870s
   and soon became involved in many iron, coal and related enterprises in
   the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia, many as a manager for
   absentee owners as such New York City mayor Abram S. Hewitt. Among his
   many projects, beginning in 1902, Page partnered with financier Henry
   Huttleston Rogers and others to plan and construct a modest project
   whcih grew to become the Virginian Railway (VGN), secretly built right
   between two of the country's larger railroads. The well-engineered and
   highly efficient VGN operated very profitably and came to be known as
   the "Richest Little Railroad in the World."

   Page was also a civic leader, a mayor of his hometown of Ansted, West
   Virginia, served in the local militia during the Spanish American War
   and later the West Virginia National Guard, and helped found a hospital
   in 1889. In southern West Virginia, the coal and railroad towns of Page
   and Pageton were named for him. After his retirement in 1917, a ship
   which served the US Navy and the merchant marine during both world
   wars, the S.S. William N. Page, was named in his honour.

Biography

Early life, education, and employment

   William Nelson Page was born at "Locust Grove" in Campbell County,
   Virginia on January 6, 1854. His parents were Edwin Randolph and Olivia
   (née Alexander) Page. He descended from historic roots, as the Page and
   Nelson families were each First Families of Virginia, prominent in the
   Virginia Colony long before the American Revolutionary War and
   statehood for Virginia. His first cousin was Thomas Nelson Page, who
   became the U.S. ambassador to Italy.

   When young, he was tutored at home, and then attended Leesburg Academy
   in Leesburg, Virginia and special courses in engineering at the
   University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

   William Page became a civil engineer and between 1871 and 1876, played
   a role in engineering and building the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
   (C&O) under the leadership of Collis P. Huntington. Initially, he led
   one of the surveying parties charged with mapping out the route of the
   double-track railway ordered by Congress to extend between Richmond,
   Virginia and the Ohio River at what became Huntington, West Virginia
   via the valleys of the James River and Jackson River in Virginia, and
   the New River and Kanawha River in West Virginia. He directed the
   location and construction of several important C&O bridges. While
   working with the C&O, he became fascinated with the potential of the
   untapped mineral resources of the more rugged portions of West
   Virginia.

Family and children

   On February 9, 1882, Page married Emma Hayden Gilham. Emma had been
   born in Lexington, Virginia in Rockbridge County in 1855. She was the
   daughter of Major William Gilham, Commandant of Cadets and an
   instructor at Virginia Military Institute (VMI). Emma was one of 7
   children he had with his wife Cordelia A Gilham. In 1860, her father
   prepared a well-known training manual for recruits and militia at the
   request of Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise, and was involved with early
   training of cadets at Camp Lee in Richmond, Virginia as the American
   Civil War broke out the following year. Her father became president of
   fertilizer company in Richmond after the War ended in 1865. Emma spent
   her teen-aged years at Richmond, where she was a débutante at one of
   Richmond's earliest "Germans", which were formal social gatherings for
   the young people (the name of these events had no relationship to
   Germany). She was the sister of Julius Hayden Gilham (April 6, 1852 -
   March 10, 1936) who is also buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond,
   Virginia.

   It is not widely known how William and Emma met, but they both had
   roots and family in the Augusta County and Rockbridge County area of
   the upper Shenandoah Valley. It is known that they had four children:
     * Delia Hayden Page, born 1882
     * Edwin Randolph Page, born 1884
     * Mary Josephine Page, born 1886
     * Randolph Gilham Page, born 1893

Entrepreneur and developer

   Bituminous coal
   Enlarge
   Bituminous coal

   A knowledgeable man with training and experience as a civil engineer,
   and the spirit of an entrepreneur, Page was well-prepared to help
   develop West Virginia's hidden wealth: huge deposits of "smokeless"
   bituminous coal, a product exceptionally well-suited for making steel.
   Former West Virginia Governor William A. MacCorkle described him as a
   man who knew the land "as a farmer knows a field."

   Page became a protégé' of Dr. David T. Ansted, a noted British
   geologist with large land holdings in southern West Virginia. As his
   career developed, Page busied himself with many enterprises to develop
   the natural resources which lay all around him, primarily working with
   iron and coal operations, often as the manager for absentee owners. Of
   course, with his background with the C&O, Page was also into railroads,
   and gained even more practical experience when he won the contract to
   convert to standard gauge the C&O branch line track from the New River
   main line up the mountainside to Ansted around 1886.

   He was the general manager of the Hawks Nest Coal Co. between 1877 and
   1880, Superintendent of the Victoria Blast Furnace at Goshen, Virginia
   from 1880 to 1885, and located and built the Powellton bridge for the
   C&O between 1885 and 1889. After developing the Mt. Carbon Collieries,
   he organized and developed the Gauley Mountain Coal Co, and he became a
   consulting engineer for other coal-producing firms as well. Other
   involvements were Virginia and Pittsburgh Land Association (a land
   development company), and Pittsburgh and Virginia Railroad Company. He
   was later a principal of Page Coal and Coke Company.

The "Idea Man from Ansted"

   The Page family settled in the tiny mountain hamlet of Ansted, a town
   with a population of 2,000 (named for Dr. Ansted) located in Fayette
   County, West Virginia. Ansted sits on high bluffs on Gauley Mountain
   near an outcropping of rocks called Hawk's Nest overlooking the New
   River far below, where the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway tracks occupied
   both sides of the narrow valley. There, in 1898 while he was president
   of the Gauley Mountain Coal Company, Page had a palatial white
   Victorian mansion built by company carpenters on a knoll in the middle
   of town.

   "Colonel" Page, as he became known, was in truth an uniformed major in
   a locally recruited Spanish-American War militia. ("Colonel" was an
   honorific title used informally in the South for many notable men in
   the years following the American Civil War). A colorful character by
   all accounts, he was described as a slight man who was known for his
   handlebar mustache, pince-nez glasses, iron bowler derby, and elegant
   suits. He was considered to be somewhat aloof by the local population,
   and could frequently be seen riding a bicycle on the sloping lawn of
   the mansion, where eight servants were employed.

   Described years later by author H. Reid as "the Idea Man from Ansted,"
   Page spent long hours working in the den just off the main entrance to
   his resplendent home. In addition to pursuing business interests, Page
   also found time to serve as the mayor of Ansted for 10 years and rose
   to the rank of brigadier inspector general in the West Virginia
   National Guard. He was also an incorporator and director of Sheltering
   Arms Hospital in neighboring Kanawha County.

   However, of all of his many activities, William Nelson Page is probably
   best-known for the founding and building of the Virginian Railway
   (VGN). It started much like just another of his many projects, but
   would ultimately grow far beyond its original scope. The story of the
   building of the Virginian Railway has been described as a textbook
   example of natural resources, railroads, and a smaller company taking
   on big business (and winning) early in the 20th century.

Building the Virginian Railway

Forming a partnership

   While heading Gauley Mountain Coal Company, Col. Page made the
   acquaintance of financier and industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers (
   January 29, 1840– May 19, 1909), who was a business associate of New
   York City mayor Abram S. Hewitt.

   Rogers was a millionaire who had made his initial fortune as one of the
   key men with the Standard Oil Trust. He was an energetic entrepreneur
   much like the younger Page, and was also involved in many rail and
   mineral development projects.

   Col. Page knew of rich untapped bituminous coal fields lying between
   the New River Valley and the lower Guyandotte River in southern West
   Virginia in an area not yet reached by the C&O and its major
   competitor, the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W). While the bigger
   railroads were preoccupied developing nearby areas and shipping coal
   via rail to Hampton Roads, he formed a plan to take advantage of the
   undeveloped coal lands. As his plan evolved, he got Rogers and several
   others to invest in it. A powerful partnership had been formed.

Deepwater Railway vs. the big railroads

   Col. Page and his investors purchased the remote land in the name of
   Loup Creek Colliery. To access it, in 1896, he formed a small logging
   railroad, the Loup Creek and Deepwater Railway (LC&D). In 1898, he
   filed a new charter for the LC&D to become the Deepwater Railway. It
   was originally planned to run only a short distance. In 1902, the
   Deepwater Railway charter was amended again to provide for the
   short-line railroad to connect with the existing lines of the C&O along
   the Kanawha River at Deepwater and the N&W at Matoaka. After the
   extension provided by the 1902 amendment, the total distance involved,
   all within West Virginia, was about 80 miles.

   By planning interchange points with the two large railroads, Page could
   anticipate competition and negotiation of fair interchange shipping
   rates with the only two big railroads nearby. Or, perhaps one or the
   other would feel it desirable to purchase the short-line railroad, a
   business tactic Henry Rogers had earlier used successfully with other
   short-line railroads in West Virginia.

   As Col. Page developed the short-line Deepwater Railway, he ran into an
   unexpected brick wall when attempting to negotiate with either of the
   larger railroads. He realized they had considered the territory to be
   potentially theirs for future growth. But he got nowhere with either of
   them when attempting to negotiate rates to interchange his coal.

   It was only later revealed that the both the C&O and the N&W were
   essentially under the common control of the even larger Pennsylvania
   Railroad (PRR) and New York Central Railroad (NYC), whose leaders,
   Alexander Cassatt and William Vanderbilt respectively, had secretly
   entered into a "community of interests pact." The C&O and the N&W had
   apparently agreed with each other to refuse to negotiate with Col. Page
   and his upstart Deepwater Railway.

   Page didn't give up as must have been anticipated. Instead, he
   stubbornly continued building his short-line railroad through some of
   the most rugged terrain of the Mountain State, to the increasing
   puzzlement of the big railroads. They were unaware that one of Page's
   investors (who were silent partners in the venture) was the powerful
   Rogers, who wasn't about to have the investment foiled by the big
   railroads. Instead, he and Page set about secretly planning and
   securing their own route out of the mountains and across Virginia to
   Hampton Roads.

Tidewater Railway: from the mountains to the sea

   In 1904, Page and Rogers had Staunton, Virginia attorney Thomas D.
   Ranson form another intrastate railroad company. The Tidewater Railway
   was to be used for the portion of their mountains to the sea project to
   be in Virginia. As intrastate railroads, the Deepwater and Tidewater
   were each under jurisdiction of their respective state. Thus, they were
   not obviously linked to each other by the various (and usually
   different) attorneys handling rights-of-way cases in the local courts
   of each state.

   Planning and land acquisition for the Tidewater Railway were done
   largely in secret. In his book "The Virginian Railway" (Kalmbach,
   1961), author H. Reid described some of the tactics. On a Sunday in
   February, 1905, a group of 35 surveyors from New York disguised
   themselves as fishermen and rode to a location which was particularly
   crucial to the project aboard a N&W passenger train. While they stood
   in icy water apparently "fishing" with their transit poles, the
   surveyors successfully mapped out a crossing of the New River at Glen
   Lyn, as well as the adjacent portion of the line through Narrows to a
   point near Radford.

   After leaving the valley of the New River, the new line was surveyed to
   cross the U.S. Eastern Continental Divide in a tunnel to be built near
   Merrimac, Virginia. After descending on the eastern side of the
   mountain, the new line for the Tidewater Railway essentially followed
   the valley of the Roanoke River past Salem and Roanoke and through the
   water gap formed by the river in the Blue Ridge Mountains. As the
   terrain changed to the more gentle rolling hills of the Piedmont
   region, the plan was to run almost due east to Suffolk, within just a
   few miles of the goal: the harbour at Hampton Roads.

   Deals were quietly struck with the various communities all along the
   way. Many were small towns and villages that had been passed by when
   the big railroads were building 20-25 years earlier, and the new
   railroad was welcomed. Even the leaders of Roanoke, home to the
   headquarters of the N&W, were accommodating, authorizing a path through
   their city along the north bank of the Roanoke River.

A coup at Sewell's Point

   Perhaps most notable of all of the communities which helped make the
   new railroad possible was the City of Norfolk, Virginia. N&W's coal
   pier and huge storage yards were at Lambert's Point near downtown
   Norfolk. Other big railroads, C&O, Seaboard Air Line, Atlantic Coast
   Line, and a Pennsylvania railroad subsidiary, had established
   facilities nearby as well.

   Access to Hampton Roads frontage and space to build a new coal pier was
   crucial to the whole scheme. However, it was also very important that
   the big railroads not learn of the plans, or surely they would attempt
   to interfere.

   The solution was found at an unlikely location: isolated and somewhat
   desolate Sewell's Point in a rural area in Norfolk County near the
   mouth of Hampton Roads.

   To reach Sewell's Point from Suffolk, the Tidewater Railway was plotted
   to run about 15 miles due east, staying well south of the downtown
   Portsmouth and Norfolk harbour areas (and the other railroads). After
   reaching South Norfolk, the new railroad would begin a wide 180'
   counter-clockwise loop to the north. Trains would actually heading west
   when reaching Hampton Roads.

   To enable the necessary routing, Norfolk's civic leaders provided a 13
   mile (21 km) long right-of-way around their city. Page-Rogers'
   interests purchased 1000 feet (300 m) of the waterfront and 500 acres
   (2 km²) of adjoining land. There would be plenty of space for the new
   pier, storage yards, tracks, and support facilities at Sewell's Point.

The common enemy with deep pockets

   In West Virginia, Page went to court to secure right-of way for the
   Deepwater Railway to proceed east past the earlier planned terminus
   (with the N&W) at Matoaka. In what may have been a near-miss with a
   perjury charge, upon interrogation by N&W attorneys in a West Virginia
   legal confrontation over right-of-way, Page representing the Deepwater
   Railway identified the estate of the late Abram S. Hewitt (a former
   mayor of New York City) as one of his investors. Page never mentioned
   Henry Rogers, who it is now known had been an associate of Hewitt and
   may have been acting through the Hewitt estate. The N&W attorneys were
   unsuccessful in learning more at that time, or during other
   confrontations as they attempted to stop the progress of the Deepwater
   in West Virginia.

   Meanwhile, over in Virginia, with the land and route secured, in 1905
   the Tidewater Railway began construction. By the time the larger
   railroads finally realized what was happening, and that Col Page was
   involved in both the Deepwater and Tidewater Railways, their new
   competitor could not be successfully blocked in the courts.

   As the construction continued throughout 1905, Col. Page continued to
   meet with each of the big railroads to attempt to negotiate rates
   and/or perhaps sell off his growing enterprise. The leaders of the C&O
   and the N&W exchanged correspondence sharing their mutual concern about
   the "common enemy." Page did not appear to be financially capable of
   the project and they were skeptical that the new Deepwater and
   Tidewater railroads could be financed and completed. After all, they
   reasoned, there had been no public offering of bonds or stock, which
   were the way such enterprises were customarily financed at the time.
   The big railroads saw to it that the "negotiations" were always
   unproductive, and Col. Page always declined to indicate the source of
   his "deep pockets".

   Norfolk and Western Railway President Lucius E. Johnson tried a
   different tactic to block (or at least slow) construction and increase
   costs. He filed papers with Virginia's State Corporation Commission to
   attempt to force costly overpasses at proposed at-grade crossings with
   the N&W in Roanoke and South Norfolk, citing great concern about the
   potential safety hazards which would allegedly result. The state
   authorities ruled against N&W at both locations, and construction of
   the new Tidewater Railway continued.

Henry Rogers steps forward

   The leaders of the big railroads heard many rumors regarding possible
   sources of the mysterious funding. Henry Rogers' name had been
   mentioned, along with just about every other wealthy industrialist. The
   names of many companies, including Standard Oil, had also been
   discussed as well as those of many other large companies.

   There was a lot at stake, as the C&O and the N&W through the secret
   "community of interests" pact were carefully controlling coal shipping
   rates. Such collusion was the very game that helped Rogers make his
   fortune at Standard Oil.

   Rumors notwithstanding, there seems to be no credible evidence that the
   leaders of the N&W/C&O had any confirmation of the Rogers involvement
   until he and Page were ready for them to know.

   Finally, well into 1906, at the request of Rogers, famous industrialist
   turned philanthropist Andrew Carnegie brought President Johnson of the
   Norfolk and Western Railway to Rogers' office in the Standard Oil
   Building in New York. According to Norfolk and Western's corporate
   records, the meeting lasted less than five minutes. Some tense and
   less-than-pleasant words were exchanged, and Rogers' backing had
   finally been confirmed.

   Of course, the head of the C&O soon also received the news, as did the
   leaders of the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads. There would
   be an old and experienced hand at rate-making as a new player in their
   game.
   This aerial shot of Victoria was taken in 1954 looking west. It shows
   the turntable and roundhouse in the lower left, and the passenger
   station and Norfolk division offices to the right of the tracks.
   Enlarge
   This aerial shot of Victoria was taken in 1954 looking west. It shows
   the turntable and roundhouse in the lower left, and the passenger
   station and Norfolk division offices to the right of the tracks.

Victoria is created

   Late in 1906, near the halfway point on the Tidewater Railway between
   Roanoke and Sewell's Point, a new town with space set aside for
   railroad offices and shops was created in Lunenburg County, Virginia.
   It was named Victoria, in honour of Queen Victoria of England, who was
   long-admired by Henry Rogers.

   Victoria was the location of a large equipment maintenance operation,
   with roundhouse, turntable, coaling and water facilities for servicing
   steam locomotives, a large rail yard with many tracks, and a large
   single-story passenger station. Offices for the VGN's Norfolk Division
   were built by adding a second floor to the passenger station building a
   few years later.

Virginian Railway born, Jamestown Exposition

   Early in 1907, with substantial portions of each still under
   construction, the Deepwater and Tidewater Railways were combined to
   become "The Virginian Railway Company." On April 15, 1907, William
   Nelson Page was elected as its first president.

   About the same time, a large stretch of the eastern portion of the
   Tidewater had been completed and regular passenger service was
   established between Norfolk and Victoria. This proved just in time for
   the new railroad to serve the Jamestown Exposition, which was held on
   land adjacent to the VGN coal pier site at Sewell's Point. At the
   exposition, Page served as Chief of International Jury of Awards, Mines
   and Metallurgy.

   On April 26, 1907, US President Theodore Roosevelt opened the
   exposition. Mark Twain was another honored guest, arriving with his
   friend Henry Rogers on the latter's yacht Kanawha. In addition to
   President Roosevelt, the newly renamed Virginian Railway (VGN)
   transported many of the 3 million persons who attended before the
   Exposition closed on December 1, 1907.

Financial panic of 1907 - Rogers has stroke

   Work progressed on the VGN during 1907 and 1908 using construction
   techniques not available when the larger railroads had been built about
   25 years earlier, achieving a more favorable route and grade. By paying
   for work with Henry Rogers' own personal fortune, the railway was built
   with no public debt. This feat, a key feature of the successful secrecy
   in securing the route, was in all likelihood not part of Rogers'
   initial planning, and was not accomplished without some considerable
   burden to the financier, however. He had suffered some setbacks in the
   Financial Panic of 1907 which began in March of that year. Then, a few
   months later, he experienced a debilitating apoplectic stroke.
   Fortunately, Henry Rogers recovered his health, at least partially, and
   saw to it that construction was continued on the new railroad until it
   was finally completed early in 1909.

Final spike, celebrations

   The final spike in the VGN was driven on January 29, 1909, at the west
   side of the massive New River Bridge at Glen Lyn, near where the new
   railroad crossed the West Virginia- Virginia state line. The former
   Deepwater and Tidewater Railways were now physically connected.

   In April, 1909, Henry Huttleston Rogers and Mark Twain, old friends,
   returned to Norfolk, Virginia together once again for a huge
   celebration of the new "Mountains to the Sea" railroad's completion.

   They were met at the shore by a huge crowd of Norfolk citizens waiting
   with great excitement despite rain that day. While Rogers toured the
   railway's new $2.5 million coal pier at Sewell's Point, Mark Twain
   spoke to groups of students at several local schools. That night, at a
   grand banquet held in downtown Norfolk, the city's civic leaders, Mark
   Twain, other dignitaries, and Rogers himself spoke.

   Rogers left the next day on his first (and only) tour of the newly
   completed railroad. He died suddenly only six weeks later at the age of
   69 at his home in New York, victim of another stroke. But by then, the
   work of the Page-Rogers partnership to build the Virginian Railway had
   been completed.

Accomplishments

   While neither William Page or Henry Rogers ended up running their newly
   completed Virginian Railway, it was arguably a crowning lifetime
   achievement for each man. Together, they had conceived and built a
   modern, well-engineered rail pathway from the coal mines of West
   Virginia to port at Hampton Roads right under the noses of the big
   railroads. The Virginian Railway could operate more efficiently than
   its larger competitors, had all new infrastructure, and no debt. It was
   an accomplishment like no other in the history of US railroading,
   before or since.

   The new railroad opened up isolated communities in both West Virginia
   and Virginia and soon helped develop new coalfields and other
   industries.

   Throughout its profitable 50 year history, the VGN continued to follow
   the Page-Rogers policy of "paying up front for the best." It became
   particularly well-known for treating its employees and vendors well,
   another investment which paid rich dividends. The VGN operated some of
   the largest and most innovative steam, electric, and diesel
   locomotives, and could afford to, earning the nickname "Richest Little
   Railroad in the World."

   In time, the big railroads learned to coexist with their newer
   competitor, and came to regret turning down opportunities to purchase
   it before completion. There were many failed attempts by each of them
   and others to acquire the VGN.

   Eventually, the owners of the VGN agreed to merge with arch-rival
   Norfolk and Western Railway in 1959. In 2004, much of the former
   Virginian Railway is still in use by N&W successor Norfolk Southern
   Railway (NS). The well-engineered low gradient VGN route helps NS
   compete efficiently with rival CSX Transportation (successor to the
   VGN's old rival C&O) and non-rail transport modes in the transportation
   markets of the 21st century.

Later career

   After the Virginian Railway had been completed, Page busied himself
   with coal mining activities in West Virginia until he retired in 1917.
   He and his family then moved to Washington, D.C.

Legacy

   William Nelson Page died at his home in Washington, DC in 1932 at the
   age of 78. He was interred in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia,
   where his wife Emma is also buried.

   The unicorporated West Virginia coal and railroad towns of Page in
   Fayette County and Pageton in McDowell County were named for him, and
   the Page Coal and Coke Company operated in each although coal mining
   has long since ended. The old company store in Pageton is listed on the
   National Register of Historic Places. The huge mansion he had built on
   the hilltop in Ansted, West Virginia still stands as evidence of the
   once thriving coal business. Later occupied by the Vawter family, the
   Page-Vawter House is also listed on the National Register of Historic
   Places. Nearby, breathtaking Hawk's Nest overlooks the New River Gorge
   National River.

   The seemingly remotely-located terminal Page and Rogers planned and
   built at Sewell's Point played an important role in 20th century U.S.
   naval history. Beginning in 1917, the former Jamestown Exposition
   grounds adjacent to the VGN coal pier became an important facility for
   the United States Navy. The VGN transported the high quality
   "smokeless" West Virginia bituminous coal favored by the US Navy for
   its ships, providing a reliable supply during both World Wars. Today,
   the former VGN property at Sewell's Point is part of the Norfolk Navy
   Base, the largest naval facility in the world.
   USS William N. Page 1918-19
   Enlarge
   USS William N. Page 1918-19

   After Col. Page retired in 1917, a ship was named in his honour.
   William N. Page was a steamship built at Camden, New Jersey, by the New
   York Ship Building and Dry Dock Corp. It was taken over by the US Navy
   for operation by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS) and
   commissioned on December 18, 1918. After fitting out, William N. Page
   loaded general cargo and locomotives and departed for France. She made
   several transatlantic trips through the treacherous German U-boat
   infested waters before finally returning to Norfolk where on May 31,
   1919, she was decommissioned by the Navy. After her brief naval career,
   the William N. Page remained in active merchant service for nearly
   three decades. Her successive owners and operators included the Mystic
   Steamship Co., the Koppers Coal Co., and Eastern Gas and Fuel
   Associates. The latter two companies were majority owners of the
   Virginian Railway after purchasing a controlling interest from Rogers'
   heirs in 1936.

   Formed in 2002, Virginian Railway (VGN) Enthusiasts a non-profit group
   of preservationists, authors, photographers, historians, modelers, and
   rail fans, has grown to over 650 members. Members come from as far from
   the VGN tracks as Australia and include U.S. troops stationed in the
   war-torn Middle East. A group of retired railroaders calling themselves
   " The Virginian Brethren" meet weekly, share tales of the VGN, and
   answer questions posed by members of the on-line group.
   Initials of the builders of the Virginian Railway were engraved in 2004
   by volunteers in newly-laid rail at Victoria, Virginia, where former
   VGN caboose #342 is displayed.
   Initials of the builders of the Virginian Railway were engraved in 2004
   by volunteers in newly-laid rail at Victoria, Virginia, where former
   VGN caboose #342 is displayed.

   The initials "H.H.R." and 'W.N.P." were recently placed in new rail
   laid for a caboose to be displayed at Victoria, a town they caused to
   be founded on the "Mountains to Sea" railroad. Their Virginian Railway
   has turned out to be a lasting tribute, both to Henry Huttleston
   Rogers, and to William Nelson Page, the "Idea Man from Ansted".
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